🐸My Etsy Sh🌎p🐸

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Teaching Life Cycles To Preschoolers

Spring, glorious Spring!
Always my favorite time when teaching preschool. No more 15 minute process of bundling up in winter coats, scarves, hats, mittens, and boots. Just open up the door and let them explore!

And explore they did!
Spring has sooo much going on. New life. Blooms, Yes, the grass IS greener on this side of the fence! :)
One of my favorite things to teach is Life Cycles. When I taught preschool, I would go "ponding" on a Sunday. I would trek through Spring's mud to a small pond behind my place with a net and bucket. I caught many fat tadpoles for the children to observe. I then hauled a splashing bucket of wonderful smelling pond water (driving extra slow!) to my classroom. I would set up the aquarium to look as natural pond-like as possible, adding plants and greenery around it, So when the kids walked in on Monday morning, they would be drawn right to the science area.

I always always always added smooth river rocks, tree rings, twigs, and of course Safari Ltd.'s Life Cycle models to the science area. They are detailed and educational and thought-provoking. Turning from a tadpole into a frog is a long process and kids are impatient. But with the models there, they knew the next step to look forward to. Also, they played with them, acting out the process or just incorporating them into their imaginative stories.

I have said it before, but teaching science to kids is not difficult - especially if you have great toys like these from Safari Ltd. They have 12 or so sets - chicken, frog, worm, turtle, plant, ladybug, etc. Top photo is the frog set on one of my playscapes. See my etsy store for more details. The other photos are from Safariltd.com. Check it out!